“Yes, I said mosey,” he sighs, to cover what sounds like his own laugh. “Send over what you have on this Camden guy, and I’ll get back in touch with you when I have something.”

“Thanks, Kelly. You’re the best.”

I end the call and toss my cell down on top of the notepad directly in front of me. It’s a list. The list I made this morning when I woke up to keep me on task. It’s lengthy and detailed and so incredibly essential to my everyday life, so I made one. It’s a list of things I plan—no, need—to accomplish while I’m down here for however long I end up being here.

I was thinking two weeks, but I’m beginning to think that it might be a bit longer.

So I made a list. At the top of it and underlined twice is: “Find Ryan Camden.” Then research public relations companies. Do a deep dive into our competition to see what their social media presence looks like compared to ours. Then look into hiring a company to possibly analyze our social media to tell us where we are lacking or can improve. Research veteran sports and events of the past. And then I added all the stuff for my day-to-day job—review contracts, follow-up on endorsement deals, recruitment calls.

It’s a long list but lists make me happy. They make me feel organized seeing everything I have to do laid out and then accomplished when I get to draw a line through each task I complete. The next step is to map out an achievable daily planner to keep on track and meet my goals.

I even added “Sex with Gunner” to it, because even if it’s a ridiculous thing to add to a list, if my probable interlude isn’t on it, then that means it would be haphazard and unexpected. It would be on a romantic (bleh) whim. By it being there, it—Gunner—sex with him—will stay as it needs to be, compartmentalized so it doesn’t distract me from the task at hand.

Because let’s face it, I let last night get away from me. I was tired and easily flattered by a more-than-attractive man. A man I’m excited to meet up with later . . . but I cannot allow that momentary blip on my radar to distract me from what I came here to do.

As it is, I complicated things enough with my I’m a grad student writing her thesis bullshit.

The positive? I’ve made some headway on my list. It’s superficial at best, but at least I’ve gotten a start on it. Calls have been made, a plan set in action, and now that I’m organized, I feel like I can move forward.

That, and I know what and where Grandy’s is.